Tania Vitela says that the streets of Oak Cliff remind her of her hometown neighborhood in California. She was drawn to our area because of the compassion toward your neighbor and passion for preserving what is.
Photography by Amani Sodiq
With a background of Chicano culture and as a first generation Mexican-American, walking streets like Jefferson Boulevard is very reminiscent of her youth on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles. Her life is surrounded by music with musicians in her family and having played guitar herself since age 12.
“I’ve just always been in the scene and I’ve always loved it,” she says.
The strong cultural presence of Latino heritage in our area is part of what inspired her to create Loop Culture, a recurring event series that celebrates community and inclusivity by spotlighting different music genres and cultural expressions. Her partner, Christa Egusquiza, helps with the venture, handling the business side of things as the two have started to make this more than just a hobby but a true communal project.
“I’ve always said that if I could have it my way, I’d do music for a living immediately,” she says.
Vitela always had the desire to make music but never really felt optimistic in her ability to produce. Over the last year and a half, she has become DJ Richie.
“I took up DJing, learning on my own and as soon as I started getting a little bit more confident in it, I’ve been wanting to play for people,” she says.
She longed to find a place to play music, even without being the center of the show. She felt like if she kept waiting for the opporunity, she would only wait and never get to perform for others.
“If I don’t also make the effort to reach out because of my social anxiety or whatnot, it won’t happen,” she says. “So I told myself, ‘Why don’t you just create, even if it’s out of my own pocket, just create a space where you can just play music?’ Have people hang out, maybe some drinks or dance or whatever they feel like. Just have fun doing what you want to do, play music and let people enjoy it.”
Her first performance DJing was in May in the Cedars, filled by mostly co-workers, but fulfilling her goal of playing for others. The Y2K throwback set explored hip-hop, R&B and a bit of freestyle in the mix, she says.
Bringing both old and new school to the performance, she drew from East Coast rap to West Coast, tying it to Atlanta and the Bay Area.
“And I wanted it to snowball more, so I wanted to become a little bit more of a recurring thing,” she says.
With the first hurdle out of the way, Vitela recently held her largest event yet at Fine Print, a newly opened magazine shop on South Madison Avenue near the Texas Theatre. Owner Crystal Cobb happens to be a friend from college and took Vitela up on her desire to spotlight music in the shop.
Loop Culture: Vol. 2 took place in September, this time expanding Vitela’s audience and sound with the incorporation of new genres to her performance.
“It was house music, so I wanted a little bit of all types of house,” she says. “A little bit of deep house, a little bit of jazz house, a little bit of techno house.”
Guests were able to flip through magazines and nod their heads to the beat, bringing different forms of art and community together. Vitela says her sets as DJ Richie tie in those pieces of community she has found in Oak Cliff.
“If you take a walk down the street, you see a lot of Latin American-inspired imagery and culture, but the people that come here are what makes it blended, and so that’s kind of how I draw inspiration with playing here,” she says.
As Loop Culture continues to expand, Vitela is hoping to do another event soon where it’s accessible to her and the communities she is highlighting in her sets.
